• Question: Why do papercuts hurt so much

    Asked by cfrty1 to Aled, Ellie, Fiona, Kev, Willem on 10 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Fiona Heesen

      Fiona Heesen answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      Hi cfrty1,

      I am not the best person to respond to this as I have no medical training, but I think papercuts hurt so much because we have many more nerve receptors in our fingertips and hands (where we often get papercuts) than anywhere else in our body – so this makes the cuts feel for more painful than cuts elsewhere.

      Thanks for your question!

      – Fiona

    • Photo: Kevin Arbuckle

      Kevin Arbuckle answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      To add to this (with the same condition that I’m not a medical researcher), your hands and fingers are used constantly in day-to-day life. So as well as having lots of nerve endings there you are regularly rubbing the two sides of the cut against each other, getting bits of dust etc. in them, and generally irritating the cut more than many other types of wound.

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